Nortel unveils web content products

Nortel is launching a range of web content delivery products aimed at improving companies' use of the internet.

Nortel is launching a range of web content delivery products aimed at improving companies' use of the internet.

The networking giant is using technology it inherited through its acquisitions of Alteon and Shasta to offer its Personal Internet strategy.

The products allow internet service providers (ISPs) and other web hosting organisations to track their customers' web usage and use the data to target the content that they deliver to them.

Micheline Germanos, marketing manager at Nortel, told Computer Reseller News: "If a business has preferred internet use, then by using this technology the service provider can pre-package information and carry out a search on the user's behalf, saving the client time and money."

In April 1999, Shasta was acquired for an aggregate purchase price of up to $340m to provide content delivery for subscribers. The Alteon business was bought last July for $7.8bn and adds web switching and load-balancing capabilities to the Nortel technology set.

The vendor plans to bring together Shasta, Alteon and Nortel resellers and teach them about the technology, which is aimed at ISPs, application service providers and corporates.

But US privacy advocates have criticised the new products for allowing ISPs to track people's use of the internet without their knowledge.

A Nortel representative said: "In Europe, Nortel is already working with trade associations and the European Community to ensure safer use of the internet and that consumer rights are protected."